Vogon Today

Selected News from the Galaxy

Daily Atlantic

“The house on the bank”, by Daniela Raimondi: an epic of souls fighting against the inevitability of destiny

Stellata is a shred of land "of a few hundred inhabitants, gathered between the road and the river" where Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy meet their gaze in a "triello" to make Sergio Leone jaw drop. “La casa sull'argine” which gives the title to the debut novel (published by the Nord publishing house) by the poet Daniela Raimondi is located here. Impassive witness to the events of the Casadio family.

The story springs from the forbidden marriage between Giacomo Casadio and the gypsy with a "wild look" Viollca Toska. Their descendants will divide into two stocks: the dreamers with blond hair, the blue eyes and white skin of Giacomo and the psychics with raven hair, black eyes and the olive complexion of Viollca. The Casadio people live between unattainable dreams, reckless passions and desperate loves. No matter what their choices or aspirations are, despite the dark prophecy bequeathed by Viollca, they will struggle to the extreme.

Daniela Raimondi follows the events of the Casadio family from the end of the 1700s up to the Years of Lead, going through the uprisings that led to the unification of Italy and the two world wars, to get to the present day. Almost two centuries told with simplicity, following a linear chronological order that allows readers to keep the course.

The deep knowledge of Latin American literature, in which the author specializes, is evident from the very first pages. Leafing through the novel it is possible to witness a harmonious encounter between the tragic solemnity of "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende and the magical realism of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriél Garcia Marquez. The supernatural appears between the pages of the novel with delicacy and spontaneity, without ever being disconnected from the context: the dialogues with the dead, the reading of tarot cards and the predictions of the future are intertwined in a solid building made of suggestions, superstitions and popular legends . Daniela Raimondi's surreal has her gaze turned towards the sky but her feet firmly planted on the ground, it is a surreal ground, human too human. The protagonists are deeply connected to the land. They may be Garibaldians, soldiers or partisans, but they have the earth in their blood and under their skin. If on the one hand we find ourselves dreaming on the waves of Latin American surrealism, on the other hand we hit the crude realism of Giovanni Verga and of “I Malavoglia” .

Intense writing blends prose and poetry. Emotions emerge without compromise, they tear our chest and assault us. Readers will cry until their eyes are dehydrated or rejoice with their hearts bursting in their chest. The shades are extreme, there are no shades. "La casa sull'argine" is more than a novel, it is an overwhelming emotional storm, an intense sensory experience made of tastes, scents and noises amplified to the maximum, of real and tangible landscapes in every detail given to the reader with a few and simple strokes of the pen.

Daniela Raimondi gave us a hymn to humanity, made up of dreams and limits, fears and hopes. An epic of souls who struggle, to live, against the inevitability of destiny.

The post “The house on the bank”, by Daniela Raimondi: an epic of souls fighting against the inevitability of destiny appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/recensioni/la-casa-sullargine-di-daniela-raimondi-unepopea-di-anime-che-lottano-contro-lineluttabilita-del-destino/ on Sat, 19 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000.